A new variable has emerged regarding the North and Central America World Cup to be held in the summer of 2026. It’s the weather.
On the 15th (Korean time), the British public broadcaster BBC published a column titled ‘2026 World Cup: Impact of global warming.’ The point is that measures such as moving the holding period must be taken.
The column said, “On July 15th, the highest temperature on record, 48 degrees Celsius, was observed in Phoenix, Arizona. Also, according to the U.S. government heat index that measures temperature and humidity, Miami, one of the major World Cup cities, has been at 38 degrees for more than a month. “It continued to exceed,” he said.
Already during the 2022 Qatar World Cup, FIFA gave up the traditional June-July event and held the tournament in November-December due to the host country’s average summer temperature exceeding 40 degrees. This means that 2026 should be the same.바카라사이트
The hot weather isn’t the only problem. There is also the problem of forest fires, which are a problem in Canada during the summer. “Last summer, Canadian forest fires (smoke from forest fires) affected 18 states and even the U.S. territory. In addition, major host cities such as Vancouver, Seattle, and Boston were affected by forest fire smoke,” a study showed. Because.
Professor Michael Koehl, a respiratory health doctor working in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, said of the forest fire problem, “The problem is that (the phenomenon) cannot be predicted in advance,” and asked, “What will we do if the Ministry of Health tells us not to hold the games?” It was argued that the method of proceeding should be reconsidered.
Athletes are already suffering damage due to high temperatures. In 2017, England women’s national team player Rachel Daly was taken to the hospital due to heatstroke while playing in Houston, USA.
Gary Lineker, the top scorer at the 1986 Mexico World Cup and a celebrity representing British soccer, also said, “The 1986 World Cup held in Monterrey, Mexico was the hottest tournament I remember.” He continued, “I had to play in temperatures around 44 degrees, and I lost about 12 pounds (about 5.5 kg) just through sweat. In the second half, I felt dizzy and couldn’t run properly. All the players, including me, were like that. It was an absurd experience.”
Lineker said, “I wish FIFA would pay more attention to global warming,” and argued that FIFA should change its perspective to make the summer hosting of the World Cup sustainable, rather than just focusing on making money by hosting the World Cup.
FIFA is also struggling to solve the problem. FIFA Vice President Victor Montagliani suggested an alternative in an interview with the BBC earlier this year, saying, “We will control the climate in the stadium.”
When the BBC asked about specific plans, FIFA said, “We plan to run the competition in a way that is as unaffected by temperature as possible, including cooling breaks and adjusting game times.”
There is also a proposal for an indoor stadium, but this does not seem easy as there was an incident in 2016 when Australian women’s national netball player Amy Steele suffered heat stroke while playing at an indoor stadium and had to end her career as a player.
Vice President Montagliani said, “We will not avoid the issue of global warming” and “promised to do our best.”
Starting with the 2026 World Cup, the number of participating countries will increase from 32 to 48, and a total of 104 games will be played over 6 weeks. This means that in order to play 62.5% more games than the existing 64 games in just over a month, there is a possibility of problems such as an increase in the proportion of daytime games.
The world is quite worried that the World Cup, which has three years left, may be caused by a man-made disaster caused by the climate crisis.
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